When Mark is not scooting around on his new
electric scooter or conducting his seminars with
a rapper's beat, he finds time to sing in a
barbershop quartet, go dancing or visit the
local comedy club. One of Mark's favorite movie
star is silent movie star Buster Keaton. He
placed a picture of the comedian on his office
wall. Inspired by Dr. Sloan's penchant for
amateur sleuthing, film producer Jackson Burley
even made a television pilot called DR. DANGER.
In the fall of 1995 Mark served as a teaching
physician at the hospital.

Mark is also a silent partner with BBQ Bob’s, a
restaurant jointly owned by his son, Steve and
Jesse Travis. The only drawback to having Mark
visit the restaurant is that he sometimes spoils
the appetites of anyone within ear shot when he
discusses in graphic detail, his medical cases
at the hospital. Once Jesse's girlfriend, Susan,
got food poisoning after dining at BBQ Bob's.
Luckily, a doctor was in the house.

In 1998, Steve was shot and Mark was convicted
for the murder of Gordon Ganza and placed on
death row. After Steve recovered, he and
associate Tanis Archer hunted down the real
killers and eventually got Mark out of prison.
With his life back on track, Mark continued to
do what he did best: comfort the sick with his
humorous nature and medical skills and, in his
spare time, play amateur detective.

TRIVIA NOTE: DIAGNOSIS MURDER is a spin-off of
the detective drama JAKE & THE FAT MAN (episode
"It Never Entered My Mind" aired on March 20,
1991 where Dick Van Dyke played Dr. Sloan, who
investigates the murder of a hospital
administrator with help from his medical
students.

Jerry Van Dyke, the real brother of Dick Van
Dyke played Mark Sloan's fictional sleepwalking
brother, Stacy on the series. Not so
coincidentally, Stacy's sleepwalking affliction
was drawn from THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW where
Jerry Van Dyke played Stacy Petrie the
sleepwalking brother of comedy writer Robert
Petrie (played by Dick Van Dyke).

Born Richard Wayne Van Dyke, the 6' 1"
actor/comedian Dick Van Dyke arrived on earth on
December 13th, 1925 in West Plains, Missouri. He
grew up in Danville, Illinois with his parents
(Loren and Hazel) and his brother Jerry. Dick
served in the United States Air Force and used
his dancing and comic timing to entertain the
troops.

In 1948, Dick married his first wife,
Margie Willet (divorced in 1970s) on a
local radio program that paid for the expenses of
the ceremony. His four children from the first
marriage (Barry, Carrie-Beth, Christian and
Stacy) appeared on his show DIAGNOSIS MURDER.
For his role in the film Bye Bye Birdie (1960),
Dick won a Tony Award and later a Grammy Award
for the Mary Poppins soundtrack in 1964). Dick
Van Dyke received his star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame in 1992. Since the 1980s, Dick (a
recovering alcoholic) lives in Malibu with his
companion Michelle Triola Marvin.

His television credits included: host of THE
MORNING SHOW (1955-56); host of CBS CARTOON
THEATRE (1958); the star of THE CHEVY SHOWROOM
(1958); host of MOTHER'S DAY (1958); host of
LAUGH LINE (1959); as Robert Petrie on the
sitcom THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (1961-66); as Dick
Preston on the sitcom THE NEW DICK VAN DYKE SHOW
(1971); host of VAN DYKE & COMPANY (1976); as
Dick Burgess on the sitcom THE VAN DYKE SHOW
(1988); and as Dr. Mark Sloan on the medical
drama DIAGNOSIS MURDER.

Dick Van Dyke's movie credits included: as
Albert Peterson in Bye, Bye Birdie (1963); as
Bert, the chimney sweep in the Disney film Mary Poppins
(1964); as Lt. Robinson Crusoe in the
Disney film Lt. Robinson Crusoe U.S.N. (1966);
as Claude Fitzwilliams in Fitzwilly (1967); as
Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang, Bang
(1968); as Reverend Clayton Brooks in Cold
Turkey 1971); and as Weller Martin in The Gin
Game (2003 - with his former co-star Mary Tyler
Moore).